Thanks so much to reader Ron for sending in these pictures and letting me know that Point Chaud opens today (I walked by yesterday and the windows were still papered up, amazing how a few hours can change things). Has anyone stopped by and gotten themselves a crepe? I admit to not be an expert on crepes, I’ll need someone like FrenchTwistDC to go and let me know how good they are. The multitude of Nutella looks promising though, no?

Growing up, Julia Child was always kind of a constant in my life – my family watched a lot of PBS and I saw her cooking shows often. She was kind of a given, always taken for granted, not that special. Recently, PBS has been showing marathons of her first show, The French Chef, and I’ve really come to appreciate her in a new way. She attacks cooking with gusto, isn’t afraid to make mistakes, and even back in the 60s, had a wonderful appreciation for fresh ingredients. It is striking how disarmingly charming her shows are in comparison to what you see on the likes of Food Network now, she clearly didn’t have a script and if she made a mistake, she made one, there was no do over. Makes her much more endearing than Rachel Ray or Bobby Flay, in my mind.

Here I present you her version of Boeuf Bourguignon, that classic French stew perfect for cold weather like this. If you’ve been tuning into my gourmet on a budget feature for a while, this will sound familiar as it’s pretty similar to coq au vin but with beef.

Well, I totally missed this. I walk this block at least once a day and I had no clue that Axis had closed, and Bistro La Bonne (and no, it’s not just you – the website has been taking forever to load) has opened in its place on the 1300 block of U street (thanks to Prince of Petworth via FrenchTwistDC for the tip). Bistro La Bonne serves classic French fare from Chef Daniel La Bonne Labonne, with staples like coq au vin, escargot, beouf bourguignon, etc. It seems like La Bonne used to have a Soupe Cafe in Sacramento, CA which got good reviews on Yelp.

I will make a point of stopping by soon, and will definitely write it up. Has anyone checked it out? Have any opinions?

UPDATE: After some internet sleuthing I have realized the chef’s name is spelled Labonne, one word, giving me more information about him. He used to cook at Tabaq Bistro, and Wazuri.

I kind of love Eric Ripert, his philosophy on food, his accent… anyway I also love his new PBS show, Avec Eric. He shows you what’s happening at Le Bernardin, visits a location where they are making something, and then goes back to his kitchen to cook what he’s been inspired by. One episode (you can watch all of them on his Avec Eric website) focused on traditions, and he cooks his grandmother’s roasted chicken recipe. Sold. So I present to you his roast chicken, with some of my own humble modifications.

Budget: $16, serves four to six, so $2.67 to $4 a serving.

Note: Since I bought a chicken from the farmer’s market, it was vastly more expensive than what you’d find at the grocery store. You could easily find a 4 lb chicken for $5, not the $13 I spent. Since this recipe is so simple, I feel you need to buy quality ingredients because there isn’t anything else to cover up sub-par ingredients. That being said, this would be cheaper with a bird from the grocery store.

It’s getting warmer, and while I love mussels anytime of the year, they seem like an especially spring dish to me for some reason. I don’t make mussels myself too often, just because you need to cook them and eat them all in one day, you can’t save some for leftovers. But, as mussels are actually a pretty cheap thing to cook for seafood, at about $5 for 1 pound, it’s a great ingredient for gourmet on a budget.

This recipe, from Epicurious, calls for saffron, which is the most expensive spice on the planet. But, as a little goes a long way, the price doesn’t end up being that much for this dish, making it fit within a reasonable budget.

I love Ming Tsai, I have probably mentioned this before. Though he’s a celebrity chef, has his own cooking show, has been on Iron Chef (and won, beating Bobby Flay), and has guest judged on Top Chef; he only owns one restaurant, which I find pretty admirable. He cooks there every day, unlike many celebrity chefs that own 10 restaurants and don’t really cook at any of them. And, Ming’s restaurant happens to be in my hometown (yes we’re on a first name basis in my head). I love his French-Asian fusion, even though it might seem overdone, he was one of the first to do it. And I love how his cookbooks are set up: one master sauce with 3-4 different recipes to make with it.

For gourmet on a budget I present his pork chops with ginger-fuji apple sauce. You can make extra chutney and use it for other recipes, like I did for this, which I brought to a Superbowl party (huge hit, by the way). The recipe includes maple sweet potatoes, but I’m not a huge fan of sweet presentations of squashes so I didn’t make it. This can be served with a simple side salad, which might add a dollar to the cost. The key to the recipe is cooking the pork chops so they don’t dry out. I have the secret to do it, but you gotta read the recipe details to find out.

French onion soup, with the melted cheese topping, isn’t exactly low fat or calorie, but it is a great dish for these cold winter days. Like most soup, it does take time to make, but the reward is how cheap you can make it for. And, it’s so hearty it can be a whole meal for me, maybe with a side of salad.

I have to admit, I found this recipe harder to make than I expected. The onions took forever to caramelize, and I had to speed up the process by turning up the heat to make it in less than two hours. But, the results were still very tasty.

And, if anyone has any tips to get onions to caramelize in less than an hour and a half without turning the heat up, I’m all ears.